King Sombra
King Sombra was the tyrannical unicorn ruler of the Crystal Empire, who overthrew the original king and violently took over. He was defeated and killed by the power of the Crystal Heart, though he later returned and targeted Twilight Sparkle. Character Appearance Sombra is a dark gray unicorn with a black spiky mane and tail. Unlike regular unicorn horns, which match the pony's coat color and have swirls, Sombra's horn is curved, smooth, at the bottom it starts dark gray a little bit at the bottom then becomes red, unlike his dark gray coat. He has sharp teeth with two visible fangs unlike other ponies, and green eyes with red irises. A purple mist usually seems to emanate from his eyes. The mist disappears both times he is attacked. He wears silver armor on his legs and neck, a crown with horn-like points on his head, and a red cape that covers his flank. When his flank is shown, he has no visible cutie mark. When he's turned to shadow in Princess Celestia's flashback only his head remains, and when he returns as an amorphous black cloud, only his eyes are visible at first. Personality King Sombra's personality is not too elaborated on. Instead, he is little more than a dark, looming menace for most of the episode. He has very few speaking lines, some of then half-incoherent, and is a very mysterious character, whose backstory is limited to the fact that he enslaved the Crystal Ponies. The source of his dark power and his motivations remain an enigma. He is however extremely cruel and sadistic, viewing crystal ponies as nothing more than his slaves, using fear on them and other characters, and licking his lips as the prospect of killing Spike. History The Crystal Empire He took over the Crystal Empire and enslaved the Crystal Ponies. He hid away the Crystal Heart, which was required to defeat him and erased all the Crystal Pony's knowledge of it having ever existed at all. While not outright stated to be his doing, the last page of the Crystal Empire history book Twilight finds (which told what the Crystal Heart was) was also torn out. The trap he laid at the bottom of the staircase of his throne room shows ponies an illusion of their greatest fear. This was on top of the fact he put the Crystal Heart in his castle because he was The Dreaded, meaning the Crystal Ponies would be too terrified of him to even try looking for it there. Then hid the entrance to the chamber so that the only way to open it was to be able to use his magic (dark magic that, presumably, a truly incorruptible hero would be unable or unwilling to use). And finally, stepping on the platform allows him to trigger a spell, beginning to spread his dark crystals inside the castle and trapping whoever got that far at the top of the tower unable to use the Heart. Not to mention the anti-teleport spell he cast on the trap, so that even a powerful magician cannot leave so easily. Celestia and Luna overthrew him, turning him to shadow and banishing him to the Arctic North, disappearing into a crevice of ice which closed up, but not before he put a curse on the Crystal Kingdom that caused it to disappear for a thousand years. Return of the Empire Eventually the Crystal Empire reappeared, but the Crystal Ponies had no memory of their kingdom before Sombra took over, and the mere memory of him causes them pain. Sombra returned along with the Crystal Empire, and tried to attack it again. Twilight Sparkle and her friends travel to the Crystal Empire to defend it under the order of Princess Celestia. When they arrive in the frozen north of Equestria they meet with Shining Armor on the outskirts of the Crystal Empire. Sombra rises as a cloud of black smoke behind them and pursues them through the snow. Shining Armor confronts Sombra and shoots a beam at him, which Sombra's "head" evades and lets the beam pass through the black cloud. Sombra then charges at Shining Armor. When Cadance's magic starts to fade, Sombra approaches the barrier, but his horn is sheared off as the barrier rises again. It falls to the ground and transforms into a black crystal which embeds itself in the ground and begins spreading to the crystal gates of the Empire. Twilight performs "a little trick Celestia taught her", which gives her the same green glowing eyes and horn engulfed in black mist as Sombra. She turns the throne black with this spell, and slowly makes the throne room look the way it did when King Sombra ruled. She finds a hidden staircase, and at its bottom is "a doorway that leads to your worst fear", created by "King Sombra's dark magic." When Twilight is under the spell, she has the same green eyes as Sombra; Spike wakes her from this state, but then falls into it himself and his eyes change the same way, and Twilight wakes him in turn. Eventually, Twilight and Spike find the Crystal Heart, but Sombra, able to invade once Cadance is no longer able to perform her spell, traps Twilight in a wall of dark crystals. Twilight tells Spike to take the Crystal Heart to Cadance. At first Sombra advances as a pillar of black smoke, and he materializes as his unicorn self at the end of it right as he's about to take the Crystal Heart from Spike and kill him, but Cadance, propelled by Shining Armor who threw her at Spike, snatches Spike and the Crystal Heart. With the return of the Crystal Heart, the Crystal Empire is restored to its former glory, and Sombra is turned to crystal and shattered to pieces in a flash of light, along with his dark crystals. Skills Shadow form King Sombra appears as a being of pure darkness. Due to this, he appears to be virtually impossible to damage, easily dodging Shining Armor's magic beam. His dark form can spread to immense distances, to the point that he can surround the Crystal Empire all by himself. He can also sink the ground and travel this way, leaving a trail of sharp crystals in his path. Celestia states that she and Luna were the ones responsible for turning Sombra into shadow. This may imply that, albeit formidable in his present state, he could be even more powerful in his true pony form. Magic King Sombra's main power seems to be creating dark, jagged crystals. Those can serve as sharp weapons or imprison his enemies. If he engulfs a unicorn pony in his darkness, he can cover their horn with crystal, blocking off their magical abilities. King Sombra's unicorn magic is more powerful than any other previously seen. It is inferred by Celestia to be dark magic, powered by hatred and fear. The glow associated with it is a toxic purple bubbling. Though it can be cast by others, Sombra seems to be the main practitioner of it. It is affiliated with corruption, able to taint the Crystal Empire in a matter of minutes. In addition to creating dark crystals, this magic can also be used to show one an illusion of one's greatest fear, or even counter teleportation magic. Category:Antagonists Category:Male characters Category:Unicorns Category:Unique ponies Category:Main characters King Sombra King Sombra King Sombra Category:Antiheroes Category:Royalty Category:Members of the royal guard Category:Canon G4